Can rural Colorado afford more renewable energy?

Marc Arnush, who grows corn and sunflowers on his Keenesburg, Colorado farm is trying to figure out if he can afford a plan to boost rural renewable energy.

A bill passed by the legislature and now sitting on Gov. John Hickenlooper’s desk would raise the amount of electricity rural electric cooperatives provide from renewable energy sources — primarily wind and solar — to 20 percent by 2020. That’s up from the present target of 10 percent.

The legislation has a cap limiting the impact on customer rates to 2 percent – that is up from the current 1 percent cap.

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which provides whole sale power to 18 rural co-ops, has opposed the legislation saying that it is too costly and the seven-year target is too rushed.

“We need more renewable energy and a more balanced energy supply,” Arnush said. “But it is difficult to put it on rural Colorado.”

Arnusch, 39, has farmed in the Prospect Valley for 18 years, running in the red some seasons and seeing pretty good margins others.

Here is Arnusch’s calculation:

He farms 2,400 acres planting a wide variety of crops including wheat, sugar beets and onions and the fields depend on irrigation – center pivot and furrow.

The water is moved from wells and surface reservoirs by 33 electric pumps. Last season, Arnusch pump a billion gallons of water at a cost of $240,000 in electricity.

The farm’s total electric bill was $340,000, so a 2 percent increase would be $6,800.

“It’s a challenge to pay our electricity bill already.” Arnusch said. In part, that depends upon the price of crops and the farm’s margin. Last season, the margins were good due drought in the Midwest, which boosted prices.

“But there have been years where we’ve had a negative margin,” Arnusch said. “Farming is a volatile business.”

Hickenlooper’s staff has done its own field work talking to farmers and ranchers – including Arnusch.

“We looked at one ranch in southern Colorado and they have hundred horsepower electric motors, huge motors,” Hickenlooper said. “On one center pivot pump they will spend $30,000.”

But when factored in to all the ranch’s costs the added electricity charge came to 0.4 percent, Hickenlooper said.

“If you are a rancher or a farmer that’s significant,” Hickenlooper said. “I’m not denying that this is an issue, but it something that many, many other states have already gotten to.”

Colorado adopted the country’s second most ambitious renewable energy standard for its investor-owned utilities – 30 percent by 2020. Only California at 33 percent is higher. But the growth of renewable generation is slowing as that target is met.

The two areas that have the potential to add more renewable energy generation are rural co-ops and municipal utilities, such as those in Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, which also have a 10 percent renewable target by 2020.

And so, Hickenlooper weighs pushing for more renewable energy for rural co-ops and what farmers and ranchers ate telling him. “I know he is wrestling with this,” Arnusch said. “It is a tough call.”

Emilie Rusch covers retail and commercial real estate for The Post. A Wisconsin native and Mizzou graduate, she moved to Colorado in 2012. Before that, she worked at a small daily newspaper in South Dakota. It's the one with Mount Rushmore.